Veltsa külla kerkib tükike Tiibetit

Estonian Original Article

English Translation

[edit]

Esimesed rajatised saanud Vello Väärtnõu rajatav budistlik keskus pole kaugeltki veel valmis. Foto: Urmas Luik / Pärnu Postimees

Suurtest maanteedest eemal Veltsa külas Koonga lähedal rajab tükikest Tiibetit kirju ja mõneti skandaalsegi elukäiguga Vello Väärtnõu, kes budistlikku keskust luues soovib tutvustada Eesti inimestele ida kultuuri.

Toimetuse potisinine Nissan hüppab Veltsa küla püstistel põlluteekividel nagu hobuvanker puust ratastel, olgugi et roolikeeraja hoo viimseni maha võtab. Miski ei viita sellele, et siin põldude ja metsatukkade vahel rajab üks mees budistlikku keskust.

Ent viimaks paistab salu tagant midagi kiiskavvalget. Keset õue naelutab tulijate pilgud endale lumivalgeks võõbatud kümne meetri kõrgune alt astmete ja pealt ümara kujuga ehitis - budistliku arhitektuuri vanim ehitusvorm stuupa. Tuules lehvivad väiksed erivärvilised palvelipud. Keset õue seisab aga veel poolik punaste ümarate sammastega ehitis. Stuupa ees on õlilambi ja Buddha kujukestega tuletempel ja jalusel suitsutusnõu, millest imbub õlidega segatud kadakapuru magusat lõhna.

Ruudulise flanellsärgi ja kogu jaheda hommiku tibutanud vihmast ligunenud sandaalidega paljaste jalgade otsas, pea munga kombel paljaks aetud, märgib koha peremees Vello Väärtnõu, et "kõigi olendite kaitseks, hüvanguks ja õnneks pühendatud" stuupa kõrvale peab tulema veel kaks madalamat ja matsakamat stuupat ja mitu templit.

Punaste sammaste kohale tuleb suur tiibetikeelsete tekstidega palveveski ja selle otsa raevukate jumaluste tempel.

"Suur tempel on suur ja selle jaoks ei ole raha. Teen kõigepealt väiksed asjad ära," jutustab Väärtnõu. Ja lisab, et suure templi ehitust takistab seegi, et maja ümber pole küllaldaselt maad, naaberkinnistu on aga riigi omandis.

Raudbetoonist valatud stuupa on peremehe jutu järgi seest tühi ja täis vahatatud paberile paljundatud tiibetikeelseid tekste, Väärtnõu enda loodud budistlikke ikoonimaale tankasid, tiibeti keeles kirja pandud tekste, pühakujusid ja muid religioosseid esemeid.

Enda kohta märgib Väärtnõu, et näeb välja nagu eestlane, aga oma mõtlemiselt ja lähenemiselt on pigem asiaadi moodi.

"Ma olen kõik oma raha matnud alati budismi sisse. Leian, et inimesed peaksid osa saama sellest suurest kultuuripärandist, mida pakub meile ida. See on minu kirg, minu sõltuvus. Mul muid sümptomeid ei ole," lausub mees, kes jätkas nõukogude ajal Patarei vanglas istudeski kaasvangide seas budismikuulutamist ning sai "luulude" eest luua budistlik traditsioon Eestis ja samas Nõukogude kodakondsusest loobumise avalduse kirjutamise peale kohalekutsutud professorilt Jüri Saarmalt diagnoosi "skisofreenia - hull budist".

Patarei vanglasse pisteti ta koos Tarmo Urbiga Karjalas piiriületamise katse eest. "Ihkasin itta," põhjendab ta tagantjärele.

"Mulle meeldib budism sellepärast, et seal ei ole tegemist niivõrd usu, kui teadmisega, ja mulle meeldib budismi psühholoogia. Olin 70ndate alguses ainuke mees, kes kõndis ringi ja teatas tähtsalt, et ta on budist, kuigi teadsin budismist siis küllalt vähe," meenutab Väärtnõu muigamisi oma noorusaegu.

Esimene budistide vennaskond

1982. aastal vanglast vabanedes ehitas Väärtnõu mõttekaaslastega Eesti esimese stuupa toonase hea sõbra Jüri Arraku suvekoju Tõstamaale. Ülemise osa, mis sümboliseerib Brahma taevaid, teinud ravitseja ja maausuline Vigala Sass.

"Meil oli toona selline jõuk nagu Eestimaa Budistlik Vennaskond, keda hüüti Taolaks ja kelle päralt oli Kadriorus maja, kus elasime ja tegelesime budismiga. Seda võiks nimetada väikseks kloostriks. Meil olid õudselt kavalad ametid, kütsime hommikul ja õhtul katlaid, päev oli tööta. Läksin isegi sellepärast, et seda asja vedada, Kadrioru elamute valitsusse katlamajade bossiks. Valasime katlamajas pühakujusid, tegime siiditrükis tankasid ja kasutasime süsteemi totaalselt ära," märgib Väärtnõu.

Põhitegevus oli Taolas siiski õppimine ja eneseharimine, vanamongoli keelt näiteks õpetas neile keelemees ja Tartu ülikooli orientalistikakabineti rajaja Pent Nurmekund. Teadmisi käidi omandamas Burjaatias Ivolga kloostriski.

Vennaskonna loomise eesmärk oli panna Eestis alus vanima Tiibeti budismi koolkonna Nijngma traditsioonile ja kaugemas plaanis rajada Eestisse Njingma klooster, kus võiks saada budistlikku haridust. Sellest lähtuvalt ostiski Väärtnõu 1986. aastal Veltsa külla talukoha ning tulevasele kloostrile tegi projekti Leonhard Lapin.

Taola tegevus paraku katkes, kui tagantjärgigi hulljulgeks sammuks nimetatud algatus 1988. aasta jaanuaris luua Eesti rahvusriigi iseseisvuse taastamiseks kommunistlikule parteile alternatiivpartei päädis nii selle eestvedaja Väärtnõu kui mitme teise ettepanekule allakirjutanud isiku Nõukogude Liidust väljasaatmisega.

Revolutsiooniline talu

"Muide, selles talus kirjutasingi tolle Eesti Rahvusliku Sõltumatuse Partei programmi valmis, nii et see on lausa revolutsiooniline talu. KGB andis mulle jalaga tagumikku selle eest, et selliseid aktiivseid mehi ei ole Eestimaal vaja," nendib Väärtnõu.

"Kui alustada seda protsessi, kust sai ERSP alguse, siis keegi ei julge vastu vaielda mulle, kes ma olen 20 aastat vait olnud. Kõik kartsid alla kirjutada. Ma ütlesin, et teil ei ole ajusid, te ei mõista situatsiooni. Too 1987. aasta sügis, kui see oli, mõtlesin, et tuleb midagi teha. Lagle Parek ja teised hakkasid koguma allkirju, et teha stalinismiohvrite mälestusmärki. Siis ma mõtlesin, et see on nagu tsaarile kirjutada: tohib, ma teen mälestusmärgi. Ja siis ma mõtlesin, et see ei aita poliitiliselt Eesti rahvast edasi. Teeme kõigepealt riigi ja siis hakkame mälestama," pajatab Väärtnõu.

Selle mõtte ütles ta välja novembris rahvakogunemisel Vana-Pärnu surnuaial.

"Kõik hüüdsid: "Me tahame süüa ja leiba ja vorsti!" Ma kuulasin seda juttu ja siis ma astusin ette ja ütlesin: "Eesti inimesed, on vaja teha enda riik ja ise teha süüa ja selleks tuleb teha partei." Keegi kisas rahva hulgast: "Provokaator!" Siis ma ütlesin, et tule siia, räägime. Kõik jäid vaikseks, keegi ei saanud midagi öelda. Ma olin esimene, kes ütles avalikult välja, et Eesti peaks saama iseseisvaks. Ja see on fakt, selle vastu ei saa," on Väärtnõu oma mälus kindel.

ERSP loomise ettepaneku algatajate nimekiri suleti 21. jaanuaril, 14 allkirja all. Mitu MRP-AEG liigetki kirjutas sellele alla ja enamikust said ERSP asutajaliikmed pool aastat hiljem, kui Väärtnõu ja Eke-Pärt Nõmm juba eksiilis olid.

Partei algatamisest otsustati teatada rahvusvahelisele pressile nädal hiljem Moskvas ja kuigi sinna autoga sõitnud Väärtnõule, Ärvi Orulale ja Eke-Pärt Nõmmele järgnesid KGB autod ja nad otsiti läbi kahtlusalustena "soomlase paljaksröövimises" ning veeti miilitsajaoskonda, õnnestus Nõmmel Moskvas ühes kurvis õigel ajal autost väljuda koos kohvitermosesse peidetud dokumentidega.

Moskvas erakorteris toimunud pressikonverentsil olid kohal nii Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, New York Times, USA telekompanii ABC kui Vene miilits, ERSP loomise ettepanek loeti samal päeval ette Ameerika Hääle ja Vaba Euroopa eestikeelsetes saadetes ning New York Times'i esilehel ilmus hiljem intervjuu Väärtnõuga ERSP ettepaneku dokumendist, mis kutsus moodustama esimest sõltumatut poliitilist parteid Nõukogude Liidus.

"Ma ei tea, sõna "dissident" oleks minu suhtes vale kasutada. Minul seostub see sellega, et inimene istub kodus vaikselt, kirjutab midagi ja siis saadab välja. Mina ütlen alati otse. "Vabadusvõitleja" on minu kohta ka vale öelda, siis ma nagu oleksin kohutavalt võidelnud," arvab Väärtnõu enda kohta.

Nõukogude Liidust väljasaatmine tähendas seda, et lõpuks ometi oli tee avatud Himaalajasse, kus Väärtnõul õnnestus mitu aastat töötada kaameramehena ning koos kohalikke keeli-murrakuid tundnud lääne teadlastega külastada kloostreid ja õpetlasi, rajades sealgi stuupasid.

Suurema osa eksiilis oldud ajast elas Väärtnõu Rootsis, töötas arvutigraafikuna ja tegi näitusi, luues kunstnikuna enda versiooni kanoonilisest kunstist ja tankadest.

2007. aastal naasis ta lõpuks Eestisse eesmärgiga vahepeal aastaid elaniketa seisnud, seetõttu rüüstatud ja elektrita jäänud talukoht Veltsas korda teha, kuid sattus taas skandaali keerisesse.

Budistlikust narkotalust

Nimelt osalesid augustis Väärtnõu poolt Taola asemele loodud MTÜsse Eesti Njingma astunud Pärnu poksiklubi Everlast liikmed parajasti Veltsas võsakoristamistalguil, kui nad politseihaaranguga Pärnus ärimehe jõhkras peksmises kahtlustatavatena kinni võeti. Tagatipuks leiti talu pööningult kanepit, mida Väärtnõu pidas enda sõnutsi esiotsa shanshee'ks ehk kadakapuruks, mida budistid põletavad suitsutusnõudes.

"Mina mõtlesin alguses, et mingisugune maffia tuleb õue sisse. Mul paluti relvad ära anda. Ütlesin, et palun, köögikapis. Nad olid minu peale hästi solvunud, sest seal olid ainult kahvlid-noad," meenutab Väärtnõu. "Ekspertiis ütles, et see oli kanep. Kuid me ei suitsetanud koos."

Eesti Ekspressis seejärel ilmunud skandaalihimulise pealkirjaga artiklis ristiti koht budistlikuks narkotaluks, mille tõelevastavuse politsei küll kohe kummutas, kuid mille taaka kannab Väärtnõu turjal tänaseni.

"Sellest hetkest hakkasid paljud minusse halvasti suhtuma," tunnistab mees. Selleni välja, et teda mõnest uksest sisse ei lastud.

Sellegipoolest löövad poksiklubi liikmed MTÜ Eesti Njingma tegemistes endiselt aktiivselt kaasa ja aitasid stuupatki ehitada. (Väärtnõu sõnutsi on tal budistliku keskuse rajamisel nõu ja jõuga abiks teisigi inimesi, nagu näiteks mittebudistist ettevõtja Riho Sild, Eve Kirsima või Jüri Saard, samuti omaalgatuslikult annetanud ettevõtteid.)

"Kuna nad ise ilmusid minu juurde Rootsi, tundsid huvi budismi vastu ja neile imponeeris, et selline mees nagu mina algatas partei, olen nendega suhelnud," ütleb Väärtnõu. Mis puutub süütusse ja süüsse, siis mehe sõnade kohaselt ei suhtle ta nendega poksi, vaid budismi pinnalt.

"Ma ei saa öelda, et nad ei ole budistid. Kui inimene ütleb, et ta on budist, siis ta on budist. Muidugi ma ütlen: olge rahulikud, ärge tehke midagi sellist. Nad ütlevad, et me pole teinudki. Ma ei saa öelda, et vastupidi, lähtudes lehtedest või politsei arvates olete teinud, see on mõttetu, eks ole. Meie peres, kus mina kasvasin, öeldi, et kui mõni friik ajab sind taga, võid sa alati koju tulla, sest kodu kaitseb sind. Ma olen kasutanud nende inimeste suhtes täpselt samasugust arvamust," põhjendab Väärtnõu oma arusaamist juhtunust.

Oma elu kohta lausub ta: "Ma elan siin nagu munk. Mul on puhas tsölibaat, ainukene nõrkus, mis on: ma teen suitsu. Ma ei joo, narkootikume ei tarvita, isegi naistest olen loobunud, mis samal ajal on kõige raskem, sest silm ju näeb. Ent mulle meeldib, kui inimene on võimeline pühenduma."

Budism ja Põhjala

Kolm viimast aastat on Väärtnõu Veltsa tegemiste kõrval loonud internetipõhist tasuta budismi entsüklopeediatki, koondamaks sellealast infot, mõistete seletusi ning isikuid ja ajalugu käsitlevaid artikleid ühte portaali.

Eestisse naastes asus Rootsi kodakondsusega Väärtnõu MTÜga Eesti Njingma ühtlasi korraldama igal aastal oktoobris-novembris Tallinna ülikoolis rahvusvahelist konverentsi "Budism ja Põhjala", kus eestlastest on üles astunud näiteks Tiit Pruuli, Leonhard Lapin, Priit Kelder ja Anti Kidron, samuti teadlased ja mungad muudest riikidest.

"Konverentsi idee on mul paika pandud juba aastal 1985. Mõte on kajastada, kuidas budism Läänemere regioonis areneb. Siin on koos teadus, mis tegeleb uurimismaterjalidega, ja need, kes budismi praktiseerivad," selgitab Väärtnõu.

Anu Jürisson
reporter
3. juuli 2009

Source

parnu.postimees.ee

[edit]

This translation is provided by AI

A Little Piece of Tibet Rises in Veltsa Village

The Buddhist centre being built by Vello Väärtnõu, where the first structures have gone up, is far from finished yet. Photo: Urmas Luik / Pärnu Postimees

Far from the major highways, in the village of Veltsa near Koonga, Vello Väärtnõu, a man with a colourful and in some ways even scandalous life story, is building a piece of Tibet. By creating a Buddhist centre he wishes to introduce Estonian people to the culture of the East.

The editorial office's dark blue Nissan bounces over the steep, stony field tracks of Veltsa village like a horse cart on wooden wheels, even though the driver slows right down. Nothing suggests that here, between fields and groves, a man is building a Buddhist centre.

But finally something glistening white shows through from behind a grove. In the middle of the yard a ten-metre-high structure, whitewashed snow-white, stepped at the bottom and round at the top, rivets the gaze of arrivals: the oldest form of Buddhist architecture, the stupa. Small multicoloured prayer flags flutter in the wind. In the middle of the yard stands also a still unfinished structure with round red columns. In front of the stupa there is a fire temple with an oil lamp and little Buddha figures, and on a pedestal an incense burner, from which seeps the sweet smell of juniper crumbs mixed with oils.

In a checked flannel shirt, with sandals soaked by the rain that had drizzled all through the cool morning on his bare feet, and his head shaved bald like a monk's, the master of the place, Vello Väärtnõu, notes that beside the stupa, which is "dedicated to the protection, welfare and happiness of all beings", two more lower and squatter stupas and several temples are still to come.

Above the red columns will come a large prayer wheel with Tibetan-language texts, and on top of it a temple of wrathful deities.

"The big temple is big and there is no money for it. I will do the small things first," says Väärtnõu. And he adds that the construction of the big temple is also hindered by the fact that there is not enough land around the house, and the neighbouring plot is state-owned.

According to the owner, the stupa, cast in reinforced concrete, is hollow on the inside and filled with Tibetan-language texts copied onto waxed paper, thangkas (Buddhist icon paintings created by Väärtnõu himself), texts written down in Tibetan, holy images and other religious objects.

About himself Väärtnõu notes that he looks like an Estonian, but in his thinking and approach is rather like an Asian.

"I have always buried all my money in Buddhism. I find that people should have a share in this great cultural heritage that the East offers us. It is my passion, my addiction. I have no other symptoms," says the man who, in Soviet times, continued preaching Buddhism among his fellow prisoners even while sitting in Patarei prison. For his "delusions" of creating a Buddhist tradition in Estonia, and at the same time for writing an application to renounce Soviet citizenship, he received from Professor Jüri Saarma, who had been summoned to see him, the diagnosis "schizophrenia: mad Buddhist".

He was put into Patarei prison together with Tarmo Urb for an attempt to cross the border in Karelia. "I longed for the East," he explains in retrospect.

"I like Buddhism because it is not so much a matter of faith as of knowledge, and I like the psychology of Buddhism. In the early 70s I was the only man who walked around and announced importantly that he was a Buddhist, although I knew rather little about Buddhism then," Väärtnõu recalls with a smile about his youthful days.

The first brotherhood of Buddhists

When he was released from prison in 1982, Väärtnõu and like-minded people built Estonia's first stupa at the summer house of his then good friend Jüri Arrak in Tõstamaa. The upper part, which symbolises the heavens of Brahma, was made by the healer and adherent of the native Estonian religion Vigala Sass.

"At that time we had a gang called the Estonian Buddhist Brotherhood, who were called Taola, and who had a house in Kadriorg where we lived and engaged in Buddhism. It could be called a small monastery. We had awfully clever jobs: we stoked boilers in the morning and evening, and the day was free of work. In order to carry this thing through, I even went to the Kadriorg housing administration to become the boss of the boiler houses. In the boiler house we cast holy images, made thangkas by silk-screen printing and exploited the system totally," notes Väärtnõu.

The main activity in Taola was nevertheless learning and self-education. For example, Old Mongolian was taught to them by the linguist and founder of the Oriental Studies Cabinet of the University of Tartu, Pent Nurmekund. They went to acquire knowledge even at the Ivolga monastery in Buryatia.

The aim of founding the brotherhood was to lay a foundation in Estonia for the tradition of the Nyingma, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism, and in the longer term to establish in Estonia a Nyingma monastery where one could receive a Buddhist education. On that basis Väärtnõu in 1986 bought a farmstead in Veltsa village, and the project for the future monastery was made by Leonhard Lapin.

Taola's activity unfortunately came to an end when the initiative, which even in retrospect has been called a foolhardy step, to create in January 1988 an alternative party to the Communist Party for the restoration of the independence of the Estonian nation-state ended in the expulsion from the Soviet Union of both its initiator Väärtnõu and several other persons who had signed the proposal.

A revolutionary farm

"By the way, it was on this farm that I finished writing the programme of that Estonian National Independence Party, so it is a downright revolutionary farm. The KGB gave me a kick in the backside because such active men are not needed in Estonia," Väärtnõu states.

"If we start with the process from which the ERSP began, nobody dares to argue with me, who have been silent for 20 years. Everyone was afraid to sign. I said that you have no brains, you do not understand the situation. That autumn of 1987, when it was, I thought that something has to be done. Lagle Parek and others began collecting signatures to make a monument to the victims of Stalinism. Then I thought that this is like writing to the tsar: may I make a monument? And then I thought that this does not move the Estonian people forward politically. Let us first make a state and then we will start commemorating," relates Väärtnõu.

He expressed this thought in November at a public gathering at the Vana-Pärnu cemetery.

"Everyone shouted: 'We want food and bread and sausage!' I listened to this talk and then I stepped forward and said: 'Estonian people, we need to make our own state and make our own food, and for that we have to form a party.' Someone yelled from the crowd: 'Provocateur!' Then I said, come here, let's talk. Everyone fell silent, no one could say anything. I was the first to say publicly that Estonia should become independent. And that is a fact, there is no arguing against it," Väärtnõu is certain in his memory.

The list of initiators of the proposal to found the ERSP was closed on 21 January with 14 signatures. Several members of MRP-AEG also signed it, and most of them became founding members of the ERSP half a year later, when Väärtnõu and Eke-Pärt Nõmm were already in exile.

It was decided to announce the founding of the party to the international press a week later in Moscow. Although KGB cars followed Väärtnõu, Ärvi Orula and Eke-Pärt Nõmm, who drove there by car, and they were searched as suspects of "robbing a Finn bare" and taken to a militia station, Nõmm managed to get out of the car at a bend in Moscow in time, together with the documents hidden in a coffee thermos.

At the press conference held in a private flat in Moscow, present were the Chicago Tribune, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the US television company ABC and the Russian militia. The proposal to found the ERSP was read out the same day in the Estonian-language broadcasts of Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and an interview with Väärtnõu about the ERSP proposal document, which called for the formation of the first independent political party in the Soviet Union, later appeared on the front page of the New York Times.

"I don't know, it would be wrong to use the word 'dissident' about me. For me it is associated with a person sitting quietly at home, writing something and then sending it out. I always say things directly. 'Freedom fighter' is also wrong to say about me, then it would be as if I had fought tremendously," Väärtnõu thinks of himself.

Expulsion from the Soviet Union meant that at last the road to the Himalayas was open, where Väärtnõu managed to work for several years as a cameraman and, together with Western scholars who knew the local languages and dialects, to visit monasteries and learned teachers, building stupas there too.

For most of his time in exile Väärtnõu lived in Sweden, worked as a computer graphics artist and held exhibitions, creating as an artist his own version of canonical art and thangkas.

In 2007 he finally returned to Estonia with the aim of putting in order the farmstead in Veltsa, which had in the meantime stood uninhabited for years, had therefore been plundered and was left without electricity, but he found himself once again in the whirl of scandal.

About the Buddhist "drug farm"

Namely, in August, members of the Pärnu boxing club Everlast, who had joined the non-profit association (MTÜ) Eesti Njingma established by Väärtnõu in place of Taola, were just taking part in a brush-clearing work bee in Veltsa when they were arrested in a police raid in Pärnu as suspects in the brutal beating of a businessman. To cap it all, cannabis was found in the farm's attic, which Väärtnõu, by his own account, at first took to be shanshee, that is, juniper crumbs, which Buddhists burn in incense burners.

"At first I thought that some kind of mafia was coming into the yard. I was asked to hand over my weapons. I said, please, in the kitchen cupboard. They were very offended with me, because there were only forks and knives," Väärtnõu recalls. "The expert examination said it was cannabis. But we did not smoke together."

In the article with a scandal-seeking headline that later appeared in Eesti Ekspress, the place was christened a Buddhist drug farm. The police did refute its truthfulness at once, but Väärtnõu still carries the burden of it on his shoulders to this day.

"From that moment many people began to view me badly," the man admits. To the point that he was not let in through some doors.

Nevertheless, members of the boxing club still take an active part in the work of MTÜ Eesti Njingma and helped to build the stupa too. (According to Väärtnõu, in establishing the Buddhist centre he also has the help, in word and deed, of other people, such as the entrepreneur Riho Sild, who is not a Buddhist, Eve Kirsima or Jüri Saard, as well as companies that have donated on their own initiative.)

"Since they themselves turned up to see me in Sweden, were interested in Buddhism, and were impressed that a man like me had started a party, I have been in contact with them," says Väärtnõu. As for innocence and guilt, according to the man's words he does not associate with them on the basis of boxing but of Buddhism.

"I cannot say that they are not Buddhists. If a person says he is a Buddhist, then he is a Buddhist. Of course I say: stay calm, don't do anything like that. They say that we haven't even done anything. I cannot say the opposite, going by the papers or the police's opinion that you have done it, that is pointless, right. In my family, where I grew up, it was said that if some freak is after you, you can always come home, because home protects you. I have held exactly the same view regarding these people," Väärtnõu explains his understanding of what happened.

About his life he says: "I live here like a monk. I am completely celibate, and my only weakness is that I smoke. I don't drink, I don't use drugs, I have even given up women, which at the same time is the hardest, because the eye sees. But I like it when a person is capable of devoting himself."

Buddhism and the Nordic Region

For the last three years, alongside the goings-on in Veltsa, Väärtnõu has also been creating an internet-based free encyclopaedia of Buddhism, in order to gather information on the subject, explanations of concepts, and articles on persons and history into one portal.

On returning to Estonia, Väärtnõu, who holds Swedish citizenship, together with MTÜ Eesti Njingma also started organising every year in October and November at Tallinn University the international conference "Buddhism and the Nordic Region". Estonians who have spoken there include Tiit Pruuli, Leonhard Lapin, Priit Kelder and Anti Kidron, as well as scholars and monks from other countries.

"The idea of the conference was already fixed by me in 1985. The idea is to cover how Buddhism is developing in the Baltic Sea region. Here science, which deals with research materials, and those who practise Buddhism come together," explains Väärtnõu.

Anu Jürisson
reporter
3 July 2009

Source

parnu.postimees.ee